The sermon 'Chosen by God's Appointment - Pt 2' by Peter Allison discusses the selection of Matthias as an apostle to replace Judas. It emphasizes the seamless blend of divine sovereignty and human agency in decision-making, highlighting that Matthias was chosen both by God's appointment and the disciples' choice. The qualifications for apostleship included being with Jesus from His baptism to His ascension. The sermon underscores the importance of prayer, stating that God works through the prayers of His people and that prayer is essential in seeking God's guidance. It also explains the biblical use of casting lots to discern God's will, noting that such methods ceased with the closure of the canon. The sermon further elaborates on the unique role of apostles and why this office does not exist today, emphasizing that apostles were eyewitnesses to the resurrection and foundational to the New Testament church. The sermon concludes by stressing the importance of relying on God's providence and wisdom in all decisions, encouraging believers to live in constant prayer and fellowship with God.

And we will read beginning at verse 21. Hear God's word. Therefore of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." And they proposed to Joseph called Bar-Sabas, who was surname Justice, and Mathias. And they prayed and said, you, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

May each of us say with David, I will delight myself in your commandments, which I love. Heavenly Father, we love Your Word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and we ask, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit might illumine our hearts and that You would also give to us faith as we hear this word that we may be able to obey it, to believe it and to obey it. And I ask that you would anoint and sanctify my sinful lips that they might proclaim faithfully the gospel of the grace of God. In Jesus' name, amen.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the selection of a replacement for Judas is the last event that's recorded in Acts between Christ's ascension on the 40th day and the day of Pentecost on the 50th day. And like many accounts in Acts, or at least several, this account that we've just read seamlessly blends God's sovereign choices and actions with our human choices and actions without any contradiction or confusion. Matthias was chosen by God's appointment and by the disciples in the upper room. And see these two statements are not contradictory.

Are not contradictory. The therefore that opens this passage refers back to the situation that Peter has just laid out with respect to Judas. Peter first summarized what had happened with Judas. His inclusion among Jesus' twelve disciples, even though Jesus knew that he was a traitor. His betrayal of Jesus by serving as a guide to Jesus' murderers.

He recounts his particularly gruesome death. And then he pointed to and quotes the Scriptures that must be fulfilled that pertained to this situation. And these Scriptures declared that His dwelling would be desolate. His dwelling place would be desolate. His home is family.

And that someone else would take his place. And that person was chosen by God's appointment. They'd like to look here at three things that are characterized, and I didn't realize it was three, but it is three things that characterize God's working in these types of situations. And the first is that God works through human agency. God works through humans, and he uses us in accomplishing his purpose and his plan.

The 120 men in the upper room chose from among the qualified candidates. In other words, they were exercising their human judgment as they made this choice of these two candidates. There were many more disciples than just the 120. Jesus appeared to over 500 people, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15. And Peter says that, to Cornelius, that he only appeared to witnesses he had selected.

When he was preaching in Cornelius' house, in Acts 10 Peter says, And we are witnesses of all the things, we referring to those that were with him, the apostles, were witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree, and Him God raised on the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people. Christ didn't show Himself in His resurrected and glorified body to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. So there were many more people than the 120 that were named here that were eyewitnesses of his resurrection. The work of these 120 was to choose to, or to choose from there. And they chose to, Bar-Sabbath and Matthias.

Now what were the qualifications that they were using to make this choice? Well Peter gives those qualifications, that They were to use their minds and their understanding and their faculties as corrupt and as faulty as they are. They were to use those faculties in making a selection. And the first criteria that they needed to apply, first requirement that God stipulated as a qualification for this office, was that they had to be somebody who had accompanied Christ all the time that He was among them, from the baptism of John until the time of His ascension when He was taken up. It doesn't say that they just attended all His sermons or public discourses.

They had to accompany Him as He went in and out among them. This was somebody who had to be somebody who was with Jesus, traveling with Him, going with Him as He went in and out among them. See, this was a training requirement. The person that would be chosen here had to have been trained. People often talk about how Jesus picked common fishermen who lacked any literary education to be his disciples and to be the foundation of the New Testament church.

But what they don't talk about as much is the uncommon training that these men did receive. They were with Jesus as He went in and out among them. And he taught them. We know he taught them. He taught them publicly.

They were there when he gave his public discourses. But then we know that he also took them aside and privately instructed them above and beyond the public teaching that he gave. And he tested them. He would ask them questions to test them. He asked, you know, that's the occasion of some of his miracles.

He sent them out as missionaries to preach the Gospel. He gave them experience and he evaluated them. And he corrected them when they needed correcting. And he rebuked them when they were acting foolishly. And He would commend them when they acted wisely.

So He was training them. And so the one who would be chosen here, the one that they were to choose was somebody who had been trained by Jesus. You see, there had to be somebody who were faithful. Somebody who had faithfully followed Jesus this whole time. These had to be men who were proven.

There were many that had quit following Him. Remember John 6 when Jesus started talking about no one can come to the Father except the Father draw Him. There were many people that didn't like that. They didn't like that idea. That only those and the Father Drew could come.

And they quit following Him. They turned away from Him. And there were others like His brothers who only came later to know Him and had not followed Him the whole time of His ministry. Remember, His own brothers, during much of His earthly ministry, did not believe in Him. In fact, they even were critical of Him at places.

Now, although God works through human agents, that work isn't dependent on our natural abilities. You know, the natural ability of everybody, of every person, is wholly inadequate for whatever God has called us to do. Moses couldn't talk well, yet God called him to be a public speaker. God called him as his prophet to speak his message to several million people. But our natural abilities aren't necessarily what qualifies us.

It's meeting the criteria and the qualifications that God sets forward. And the second qualification we see is that He must be a man. It says, therefore of these men who have accompanied us. There were many women who had accompanied Jesus. Throughout His entire ministry, A number were specifically mentioned at the cross.

In fact, there were a number of women mentioned at the cross. There was only one man mentioned at the cross, John. Jesus first appeared to women when He arose. He didn't appear to men, He appeared first to women. Women are highly honored in the Scriptures.

And they were highly honored by Jesus. Jesus was born of a woman. And the Bible rightly says that she was highly honored. And she is named, Mary is named in this chapter, as being present in these assemblies. But office in the church is only to be held by men.

That's God's requirement. That was Peter's instruction of these men, Because there were many women there in their midst. Of these men. That's God's requirement, not mine. And if that's hard for you to accept, and for many it's hard to accept that today, Just remember that your difficulty is with God Himself, not me or other men like me.

Peter's instruction therefore is, of the men, choose. God uses, and they chose two men, Bar-Sabas, who is surname Justice, and Matthias. They're unknown men. They're unknown. God uses the weakness of humans to accomplish His work.

These men are not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, before or after. And they are chosen, though, but this person is chosen to be a witness. He's chosen to be an individual witness. He shall become a witness, a witness with us of the resurrection. So he's to be a witness as an individual to something that he has seen, something he's an eyewitness of.

1 Corinthians 3, 8 says, Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. So Matthias was chosen as an individual witness. But he's not chosen to be a witness apart from the others. He's chosen to be a witness with the others. And so he was a joint laborer.

He would be a witness with them. Though they witnessed as individuals, they were not alone. And Paul also goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 3, 9, in the next verse, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, you are God's building. And so there were many here that they labored together jointly.

And there were many other witnesses. There were many who are to witness and testify of Christ. We are to be witnesses and testify to Christ. But we are not witnesses of the resurrection. We can't be an eyewitness of the resurrection.

These apostles were eyewitnesses of the resurrection. They could testify to what they had seen personally in the flesh. And we can testify too to Jesus Christ. We can testify to what we know, what He has done for us and what He does. You see, in that sense, we are also witnesses for Jesus Christ.

And the New Testament speaks about other people who were witnesses for Christ. They weren't necessarily eyewitnesses to His resurrection. They couldn't testify to having seen His resurrection as the apostles did. That was their calling. But we can testify to the truth of His Word and to what He has done in our lives.

Now, this brings up really a point that I think is important, although it's somewhat a side point to this, to how God works through people, in that He doesn't work through apostles today. So this was a unique office. There are no apostles today for a couple of reasons. One, there were unique qualifications for this office that can't be duplicated today. No one today can meet the requirement of having accompanied Jesus during His time on earth from His baptism to His ascension.

And no one on earth today can testify and be a witness to His resurrection and to seeing His glorified body after He rose from the dead. So these are unique qualifications that no one else in history after this time can meet. And secondly, the apostles were foundational. The apostles and the prophets were the foundation on which the New Testament church was built. And foundations are not repeated.

When you're building a house, you lay the foundation, and then you build the superstructure on top of it, the walls and the roof. You don't lay the foundation and then come back and add another foundation on top of it. So it's a one time. The foundation has been laid upon the apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ the cornerstone, and we are the building that is being built upon that foundation. And so, for both of these reasons, the office of apostle has ceased.

It's a unique office. And God doesn't work that way. He's left plenty though of testimony to the fact of His resurrection and to the fact of His earthly witness. And He said to Thomas, blessed are those who do not see these things and yet believe. Thomas believed when he physically saw Jesus' body.

We can't see that, but we have the testimony of those who did. And Jesus says, blessed are those who believe in Him, in His physical resurrection, in His life, in His Word, even when we haven't seen His physical body. The second thing we see in God's work is that God works as we pray. God works as we pray. He works through human agency, and He works in our prayers.

Prayer is critical. It's absolutely critical. Prayer changes things. Not because prayer changes what God is determined to do from before the foundation of the world. No, nothing changes that purpose.

But prayer changes things from what they would have been if we hadn't prayed, because God has ordained the very prayers of His people to be the means through which He's worked. And when He ordains things, He ordains the prayers of God's people as well. And so prayer is critical because we can do nothing. We can do nothing without Christ. And nothing means no thing.

Have you really thought about what Jesus said there? You get up in the morning and you're going to get dressed. You're going to go out and cook breakfast. We can't do these things apart from Christ. We can't do them acceptably to Him, apart from Christ.

We need to pray. We are not to lean on our own understanding. We think we know how to make breakfast. We think we know how to get dressed. We teach our three-year-olds know how to do, children and grandchildren.

And yet, We are not to lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways we are to acknowledge the Lord and He will direct our path. So Christ prayed all night before He chose the twelve disciples. And the disciples here in this room seek the mind of God on this, and they pray. Having chosen these two people, according to the qualifications that are given in God's Word or by God's revelation, they then turn around and pray. It's the next thing they do.

And when they pray, they first address the Lord personally. You, second person. You. You, O Lord. They pray to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the one who had been among them.

And they open after that address by praising God. This is the pattern that Jesus taught them when they pray. You know the hearts of all, they say. This is describing to God the glory that is due to Him. They praise God with what is specifically true and relevant in this particular situation.

God knows the hearts of all. But It's a praise that is specifically tailored to this situation. And we may know that God knows the hearts of all. But these praises, these truths should be expressed and acknowledged verbally by us. And so we need to speak these praises and these truths in prayer.

Secondly, They praise God by acknowledging that God has chosen one of the men to hold this office. Did you catch that? Did you see what that said? Show us which of these two you have chosen. This is ascribing to God the glory that is due to Him.

They are not merely acknowledging that God will choose someone. They are saying that God has already chosen someone. And they are ascribing to Him not only the knowledge of the future in knowing who will be chosen, but control of the future. He has already chosen someone that they're acknowledging that what will happen in a few minutes will be controlled by God because God has already done it in eternity. And the second thing I would point out here is that not only are they praising God in both of these statements, but that they are using Scripture to praise God.

They were using Scriptural truths that are revealed in the Word of God. God sees the heart, they said. That's a Scriptural promise. Proverbs 21, 1 says, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water. He turns it whithersoever he wishes." And the Lord said to Samuel, when he was choosing David, He said, "'Do not look on his appearance or at his physical statue, because I have refused him.

For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Jeremiah 20 says, "'O Lord of hosts, you who test the righteous and see the mind of the heart." So in saying that God sees the heart, they weren't making something up. They were praising God with His Word and with the scriptural truths of His Word. And secondly, they're doing the same thing when they speak of God having chosen one. The scriptures often speak of God choosing people for various jobs. The choice of their king, their true like king, was by God.

Deuteronomy 17.15 says, You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother." Notice there you have the same two things combined that we do in this text as well. They are choosing a king, but they are to choose the king that God is choosing and that God has already chosen. The Levites were chosen by God in Deuteronomy 21.

Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Jehovah your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled." So in stating that God had chosen someone for this office, they were praising God with the Scriptures and what the Scriptures says of God. So they're speaking God's Word back to Him. They don't say, well, we know all these things, we don't need to say them. No, they verbalize these truths. And they verbalize specifically the truths that are specifically applicable to this situation.

The second thing we see in this prayer is that they acknowledge their need of God's wisdom to make this choice. This choice that they are about to make, that God has already made, they need His wisdom so that their choice is God's choice. They don't presume to be able to make this choice apart from God directing their steps and guiding that choice. Certainly, every choice we make, every decision, we are in the same situation. We need God's wisdom.

Even in the things that we think we might know, we are not to lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge Him and then He will direct our path. I am so often more and more convicted of that, that in these little things, these little things, God is directing our steps. And we want our choices, the real choices that we make, to be the choices that God has already made, to be wise choices in accordance with His will. Also, they ask in accordance with His Word, not their wishes. They don't say, Lord, we would like for this particular person to be the one.

Because God knows the heart, and they recognize that they don't know the hearts of these people. They ask that God would show them which of the two men He chose. Show which. Show us which of these two men you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell. Now that doesn't mean that Bar-Sabas was not a Christian.

He was fully qualified. But God had chosen one and they asked the Lord to reveal that choice to them. So they recognize in everything that happens is ordained by God. That even when we are making choices, that does not mean God is not also choosing. In that sense, the idea let go and that God should really be Let me choose as God has chosen.

We don't let God do anything. He's sovereign. We can refuse to acknowledge His governance of us. We can refuse to acknowledge His sovereignty, but we don't in any way let God do anything. We can be discontent.

We can fight against His purposes, or we can yield ourselves as willing instruments to His purpose, but nothing that we do in any way ever changes God's sovereignty. And that's true about the birth of children. People talk about letting God have control. Well, He already does. You didn't let Him have control over your conception.

He already does. See, God's choices and our choices are not at all contradictory. Or I should say that there's no confusion between them. There's no confusion between them. In 1 Samuel 10, in the choice of another king, Samuel said to the people, do you see Him whom the Lord has chosen?

There is no one like Him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, long live the King. But then Samuel, a couple chapters later, came back to them and said in chapter 12, verse 13, Now therefore here is the King whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. Now the third thing we see here is first God works through human agencies, sinful and frail human agencies.

God works as we pray, and God works through His providence. Casting lots was one way of making decisions and discerning God's will. Proverbs 16, 33 says, The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Proverbs 18, 18, Casting lots causes contentions to cease and keeps the mighty apart. See, the Bible speaks about chance.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus says the priest went down a certain road by chance. But chance is not something that God doesn't control. Chance is simply something in which our choice was not active. Our choice was not active. Or we weren't choosing or desiring or planning for the consequences that happened as a result of a choice.

In that sense, miracles are then not God intervening, they are simply God working in times or in timing or through means that He doesn't ordinarily work through. And So there are a number of places in Scripture where a lot is used to make decisions. A lot was prescribed as the means of choosing the scapegoat. There were two goats. One was let out and one was sacrificed.

One was the lords and one was the peoples, and they used a lot to determine which goat was which. A lot was used to divide up the land in Israel's day among all the families. And you see, that's what Proverbs says. It's a way of causing contentions to cease. Can you imagine all of the confusion or the fighting that might have happened with these families trying to divide up the inheritance that God gave to each tribe?

Well, your land's bigger than mine. Oh, your land's better. Oh, it's water. It's low land. Or it's high land.

Or it's fertile land. Or it's just nicer. How are you going to do that in a way that would be fair to everybody? A lot is one way, As Proverbs says, it causes contentions to cease. And so you can use the lot to divide up the land, and then nobody is making a choice, and you can't accuse anybody of not being fair or discriminating.

A lot was used to schedule the priests. They had their courses. It was used to schedule the musicians. They had their courses as well. They had their duty weekends where they were to be on duty.

It was used in the assignment of guards, and those are all in Chronicles 24, 25, and 26 as David is making all these arrangements. It was used to assign the priestly duties under Nehemiah. It was used in the Israelites when they returned from the land and they had to decide they needed some people to live in the city of Jerusalem. They needed 10% of the people in the city. Well, nobody wanted to go there, so they used lots to determine who would go into the city and live in the city.

So the question some might ask is, can we use a lot today to make decisions? Some people would say that they cannot be used today because of the closure of the canon. Hebrews 1 says that in former times, God spoke in various ways, but now He speaks through His Son. The former ways are being ceased. And they point to the fact that this is the last time the Lot is recorded in Scripture.

And they say that's because now, after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has come and that is the means of discerning God's will. But we said previously that the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost was not the Spirit coming in a way of regeneration or in a way of guidance. The Old Testament saints were regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit. They were guided by the Holy Spirit. They prayed to the Lord for wisdom.

That's not what was new. What's new is that the Holy Spirit is now bound Satan so that he can no longer deceive the nations. And so we have his power to disciple the nations and to bring them under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So I don't think that is a valid conclusion, although a lot is not a means of revelation. And at times it was used that way in the Old Testament.

Saul and Jonathan, when they were trying to find who had broken the covenant, there was a casting of lots. So There were times when God used this as a form of judgment. He revealed directly, in the case of Achan, He was choosing which tribe, which family, and so on, until He got down to the family of Achan. So lots are not a means of revelation. That indeed has ceased.

And lots are not an excuse to avoid our duty. Notice these disciples, they prayed. They worked. They did the work. They made the choice according to God's criteria that He had revealed.

They didn't just walk in there and say, well, we don't know, we'll just let God decide. They did their work. They asked God for wisdom. And it came down to a choice between two qualified options. And so I would submit that we can use lots today in certain circumstances, but the criteria would be one, that we have done all that we can to study and apply the Word of God and its requirements to the situation before us.

That we've made every effort to seek out all the knowledge of God's Word and to avail ourselves of every means that God has given to us in making the decision that we want to make. And when we have done that, and only when we have done that, could we use a lot. And secondly though, if we're choosing between multiple outcomes, all of those outcomes must be lawful outcomes. They must be lawful. God never leads us contrary to the Scriptures.

He always leads us. The prayer is to direct us according to Your Word. He always directs us according to His Word. So we can never use a lot to ever justify choosing something that's wrong. If we have a set of choices in front of us, and we want to use a lot, all of those choices must, to the best of our understanding and the best of our ability, be wise choices, equally wise choices, and good choices.

In other words, this is a matter of adiaphora, things indifferent, where there doesn't seem to be a matter of right or wrong between those choices. So if you can't decide what flavor of ice cream, you can draw a straw, cast a lot. Another example is where you want to remove human choice, a human agent having to make a choice if something is going to be difficult, just like the dividing of the land. You know, if you've got to pick for somebody to do something, and you've got three people willing to do it, who do you choose? Well, maybe you can cast lots and make that decision.

If they're all three qualified, they're all maybe willing to do it, or at least, you know, these are the three people that need to go do it and, you know, nobody's volunteering. Well, choose a lot. Then nobody has to make that decision. And you can leave it in the Lord's hands. And you can recognize that the Lord has made that choice.

Now in the example of the deacons, we see a few chapters later, they did not use lots. The reason is with this choice, there was only one person. It was critical that there be only 12 apostles. Not 11 and not 13. And so they picked these two people, but they both couldn't be numbered with the 12 apostles.

And we looked earlier why it was important that there were twelve apostles. So they had to pick of two qualified candidates, they had to pick only one. Whereas with the deacons, they looked at the qualifications and they chose the men who were qualified and there was no limit on how many. As many as the Lord had qualified and given that desire, they could choose. And they could make them deacons.

And so what this avoided is trying to take a vote where you have really no good basis for making a selection. And that's why election of officers should not be a popularity contest. But you should make decisions upon criteria, and where people are equally qualified and you can see no difference, then you have two officers. But in this case, there could only be one to be numbered with the twelve apostles, and so they used a lot. And I think that's something that should be remembered, but also not lightly regarded.

It certainly shouldn't be used in frivolous ways, like trying to decide what you're going to read in the Bible and just randomly picking something. No, we should have plans and purposes. We should be making choices according to the Word of God. We should be seeking for the Lord to direct our steps according to His Word and praying for that direction. But where?

We've done all of those things, and we have equally lawful choices in front of us. A lot, I believe, can still be an appropriate way of making a choice. So we recognize then, in summary, we recognize God's providence in everything that happens. We need to acknowledge Him in all of our ways and pray for His wisdom, Because He does work through human agents, through weak and frail and fallen people who need His wisdom, who need His strength. And so we should, brothers and sisters, call upon the Lord as these disciples did.

We should call upon the Lord in prayer. And make that a way of our living. That We are praying without ceasing. May God enable it to be so. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have given to us Your Word, but You have also given to us Your Spirit as a lamp to our feet, as a guide to our path, and that you promise to direct our steps according to your word, even as your Holy Spirit illumines our hearts and gives to us understanding of your word.

We, Lord, do commit our way to You. We would not lean on our own understanding, but recognize that everything that we do, You have taught us from the simple things to the complex things. We know and understand them because you have taught our fingers, you have taught our feet and our heads and our minds. We thank you, Lord, that you do love us, and that you do guide us. Day by day, moment by moment, you are leading us and you are with us.

Lord, may we live every moment of our lives recognizing that we live before Your face, that You hear our words, You know our thoughts, You see our actions. Lord may the desire of our heart be to live in fellowship with you, to live in communion with you, and to choose wisely according to your word and according as you have chosen. In Jesus' Name we ask, amen.